One of our department heads rarely adds issues to our Level 10 Meeting agenda during the week, but then dumps ten minor tactical items onto the list five minutes before we start, leaving no time for the team to review them. How do we handle this last-minute issue dumping?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Last-minute issue dumping is a sign of reactive leadership. When a leader waits until five minutes before the Level 10 Meeting to add issues, they are treating the meeting like a daily to-do list rather than a strategic pulse. To correct this behavior, establish a clear rule: the Issues List is locked thirty minutes before the meeting starts. Any issue added after that deadline is automatically pushed to the following week unless it is a true, company-threatening emergency. Additionally, the facilitator must push back on the quality of the issues during the prioritization step. If the dumped issues are minor, tactical questions that could easily be solved with a quick direct message or a face-to-face conversation during the week, do not vote them into the top three. Force the leader to solve those minor problems outside of the Level 10 Meeting. This teaches them to respect the team's shared ninety minutes and reserves the meeting for issues that actually require the collective intelligence of the entire leadership team.